As if the job interview were not already stressful enough—enter the lunch interview. Not only are you being judged on your HR skills, qualifications, and experience, your table manners are being scrutinized too!

Never fear. It is possible to wow a potential employer without getting indigestion. Here’s a quickie list of guidelines, roughly in the order in which you’ll need them.

1. If you know the name of the restaurant, go to its Web site and double check the location. While there, take a look at the menu and decide in advance what to order (more on that later).

2. The morning of the interview, be sure you read the newspaper or wherever it is you get your news. This is recommended for all interviews, but lunchtime interviews often involve more chitchat.

3. Dress as you would for a normal interview.

4. Make an effort to arrive first. Wait in the lobby, not at the bar.

5. No matter what time you arrive, check to see if your party is already there. You never know.

6. Wait for everyone to be seated before you put your napkin on your lap or open your menu.

7. First hurdle: Beverages. Your interviewer is likely to let you order first. Avoid the booze. Consider sparkling water. It’s both grown up and non-alcoholic. Depending on where you live, iced tea is also a good choice.

8. Do not drink straight from a bottle or through a straw, especially if you are a woman.

9. Second hurdle: Entrées. Don’t order the most expensive thing. Don’t order the cheapest thing. Don’t order anything that is ostentatiously huge or smelly or crunchy.

10. Instead, order a smallish dish that you can easily and gracefully eat with a knife and fork. (Avoid spaghetti, spareribs, fried chicken, tacos, lobster, and big fat sloppy sandwiches.)

11. Order quickly and with no fuss or interrogation of the server. Do not make an issue of your food allergies, your weight, or your likes and dislikes.

12. If you’ve brought a portfolio or other papers, mention that you have them and let the interviewer choose when to bring them out. After the plates have been cleared is usually a good time.

13. Be polite to the servers. The way you treat them says a lot about your character.

14. If something is a little wrong with your order, let it slide. This is one meal that is really not about the food.

15. Eat your dinner roll by breaking off a small piece at a time.

16. Don’t eat too fast, or as if you’re ravenous. Don’t wipe your plate with your bread.

17. Don’t eat extremely slowly either, though you will probably be eating less quickly than your interviewer (a good reason to order something small).

18. Do eat something. If you don’t, you’ll look nervous. Try to finish at least half.

19. Do not ask for a doggie bag.

20. Here’s an advantage of the lunch interview: You can ponder your answer to a difficult answer while chewing! Do take small bites, though, so there’s not an awkwardly long lag time while your interviewer is waiting for you to swallow.

21. Only order dessert if the interviewer does.

22. In case Mom failed to mention it: Don’t talk with your mouth full. Don’t put your elbows on the table. Sit up straight. Use a napkin.

23. At the end, don’t wad up your napkin. Fold it loosely and lay it on the table next to your plate.

24. Be graceful about letting the interviewer pick up the tab. You were invited!

25. Don’t forget to mention the meal in your thank-you note.

People hate to answer this last question because they fear:  1.) being automatically knocked out of the process if their number is too high, or 2.) “leaving too much money on the table” if their number is too low.  Damned if you do.  I get it.

The “How much money do you make?” question is the most blunt instrument in your interviewer’s grab bag of interview questions.  It’s one of the only questions in the entire hiring process to which the answer isn’t subjective.  It is a terrible question to ask, but recruiters and headhunters really have no choice.  It helps them determine the financial dimensions of your strike zone.

The alternative is not disclosing this information.  Some career advisers warn candidates not to answer this question.  But beware: In such instances, some HR-types will knock you out of the process for ‘being difficult.”

So please, just answer the question.  Honestly

You finally have the offer letter for that new HR job and it’s time resign. Nervous, anxious, unsure about handing in your resignation letter?  Here’s how to handle it.

1. Be super professional throughout (your integrity and reputation are more important than scoring points)

2. Don’t burn any bridges (you never know when you may need their help)

3. Don’t get personal (“you did abc” “you said xyz” – just don’t go there)

4. Offer to recruit / train replacements whilst working your notice period (your clients and colleagues will remember you)

5. Show gratitude for what your boss and employers have done for you (even if it’s not a great deal)

6. Don’t give into the temptation to take some parting shots (they often back fire)

7. Don’t rise to the bait if your boss becomes difficult (it’s never worth it)

8. Don’t take it personally if your manager reacts negatively or unprofessionally (when they get angry it’s usually about them, not you)

9. Don’t go into too much detail about why you’re leaving them (make it much more about the new challenge and opportunity)

10. Be gracious, polite…..and then go celebrate (you’ll enjoy the celebratory drink much more)

Your boss could one day be your new boss, new client or new stakeholder – or indeed the friend or partner of one of these individuals.

So act and behave professionally so that you maintain relationships and protect your reputation – regardless of how others react your decision.

When I coach HR colleagues on prepping for their interviews, I always give them one single tip for success:

“If the hiring manager monopolizes the discussion and talks 90% of the time, that’s ok.  Don’t freak out.  That means he’s going to leave the interview believing you’re an awesome candidate (because the conversation went really, really well in his eyes…)

Of course, that doesn’t always happen.  So my friends want to know how to prepare for an interview.  They show me the list of 300 questions.  They want to prepare for it all.  They’ve heard about the stress of a behavioral interview – all the examples, the different areas recruiters and managers can delve into, and they’re freaked.

It’s doesn’t have to be that way.  Here’s the cheat sheet to prepare for any behavioral interview, kids:

1.  Get your storytelling hat on. Get ready to tell the initial story in 2-3 minute chunks.

2.  Create four stories that have the following elements:

–A tough performance situation you were in (the Situation),

–The key things that you did (stuff that you specifically did) to deal with that situation, the action you took, all the details…

–What happened as a result for you and your company (positive outcomes preferred, but not always necessary)

3. Rehearse these 5 stories, get your answers down to no more 2 to 3 minutes. Be natural and conversational.  Don’t sound like a robot or overly rehearsed.

4. Be prepared to provide details about what the situation was, and especially what you did, why you did it, and how the skills for the position you’re applying for were used in that situation.

5. Take the high road and stay classy.   Never bash people in your stories. Talk about challenges when you’re setting up the situation, but don’t bash bosses, co-workers or your HR clients. Just talk about how you worked through the challenges.

6. Once you have your five stories down cold, research the dimensions/areas usually probed by interviewers in a behavioral interview. Create a grid for the stories that you think best matches the dimensions you’ll see.  Teamwork, Communication, Drive, Leadership, Project Management, etc.  What you’ll find is that even though you’ve only prepared five stories, you’ve got at least two stories to tell for each dimension.

7. Go to the interview, stay loose and tell the story, then dig into the details if the interviewing wants to dive it.

That’s it.  That’s all you need.  Tell a good story and keep your story list short, but the details strong and vivid.

Good luck out there.  You’ll ace the interview like crazy if you follow this simple road map.

LinkedIn is one of the most valuable weapons in your job-search arsenal.

It’s been called “Facebook for grownups” and “the world’s largest networking group for professionals.”

It’s clearly all that and more.

But, creating first impressions is the key to leveraging the power of LinkedIn in your job search.

If someone searching LinkedIn and you pop up, they quickly see three things: your name, your picture, and your headline.  Your name, photo, and headline should be compelling enough to cause someone to click through and view your profile. Otherwise, people like headhunters, hiring managers and even your next boss will move on to someone else.

How can you make these three items stand out effectively?

Continue reading →

by Alan Collins

The questions you ask at the end of the interview is critical.  You need to think ahead and prepare for this part of the interview because you will be judged by the quality of questions you ask.

So you want to put your best foot forward.

Here are four questions you could ask hiring managers to show how smart you are…without coming across as an arrogant jerk. :

Continue reading →

Sheila Dillon from Detroit, Michigan had been looking for work since February 2009 before starting a “Guerrilla” job search, in late September.

Up to that point, 27 weeks of frustrating job hunting had produced zero job interviews.  ‘Nada.

Just 7 weeks later, she accepted a job on Thursday, November 12, as an HR manager.  The same tactics she used will work also for those looking for their next HR job.

How did she use Guerrilla job hunting tactics to find work 65% faster? Continue reading →

by Alan Collins

Thousands of HR folks have lost their jobs in the last year. Even though you’re in HR, if you’re getting downsized or fired from your HR job, chances are you won’t know about it until happens. It’s just a fact of life. But you can pick up little clues. If you don’t know what clues to look for, you can find them HERE.

If, after looking at these clues, you still feel vulnerable, it’s time to stop worrying, get proactive and take action before the ax falls.

Step 1: Accept the fact that your job may not be safe. Continue reading →

by Alan Collins

Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are getting a lot of press these days as job search tools.

However, as an HR professional, have you considered adding Craigslist to that list of online employment destinations?

You should..

Craigslist (www.craigslist.org) is a vast network of online classified ads that includes job listings. Founded by Craig Newmark in 1995, Craigslist now serves all U.S. states and major cities, as well as countries from Argentina to Vietnam.

And it just might help you find your next job. If you use it right. Here’s how: Continue reading →

by Alan Collins

(Note: Since this is a lengthy article, don’t neglect to play the video at the end of this article.)

Let’s be blunt – if your resume is like most in HR…there are probably lots of opportunities to improve it.

Here are four suggested improvements that will make your resume stand out from the rest of the bunch.

Improvement #1:  Give your resume focus by including an “Objective” at the top, with the specific job title you’re seeking.

If you can’t focus on one job, describe the three skills you want to use in your next job (not 5 or 11). You must do the thinking for the reader and make it clear exactly what type of job you’re seeking. Continue reading →