Competence, Behavioural or Situational Interviews are where the interviewer is looking for specific evidence of a particular set of abilities or competences. It may sound complicated or even daunting but these are actually the easiest interviews to prepare for.

As with the standard interview the competence-based interview will often start with a "background review" to get things moving but after that the interviewers will move into a set of questions which will be the same for every candidate to determine whether you've got the level of competence or ability in the area they want. The situational aspect of the interview is to establish how you behave in certain situations.

Many companies call this the 'STAR' routine and STAR stands for: Situation; Task; Action; Result.

All they want is for you to outline a Situation where you used the particular ability or the Task that you had to do; describe the Action that you took and summarise the Results of your actions.

This may sound complex, but it's actually a very straightforward interview to master, mainly because they always tell you beforehand what competences or abilities they intend to cover!!

A typical set of abilities they might want to explore could be:

* Planning and Organising
* Motivational Fit
* Customer Service Orientation
* Teamwork & Collaboration
* Problem Solving
* Work Standards
* Communication
* Delegation Skill
* Initiative
* Developing Organisational Talent

Your competences comes from your skills and your abilty to do something. How competent you are depends on the level at which you perform the task. So before you set off, think about a definition of each of the competences above, as it relates to your job.

Then you must work out how you can relate a short story describing how you do each thing with an example to illustrate it.

You see how easy this becomes?

1. Define the competence or ability (which they’ll tell you about) then

2. Build up a little story to illustrate your competence.

3. Use the Key Actions to form the basis of your competence story

Take this approach and your competence at dealing with Competence, Behavioural or Situational Interviews will lift off!!

Operating an Online Think Tank is intriguing and hard work, in fact it might be better for someone like me to join a think tank rather than run one in hindsight. Not long ago a gentleman had contacted us and presented us with a research paper and 30 years of study on Mind Mapping.

Indeed he had read every book on the subject under the sun and compiled much of this knowledge into a strategy for decision making and thinking. So, I sat down and read the 90-page .pdf and got back with him by email over the weekend to thank him for the link. You see, I agree we need to teach people to think and turn on their minds, if they choose to go there.

One issue I have had with organizations like the World Future Society is that they wished to show people how to think so they could be futurists then assign recommended reading material, then advise on how to assimilate the data and project that into the future. Except in doing so, they noted that "See" everyone who is smart comes to the same conclusions so therefore; "We must be right!" Then they decided that they must use these "Truths" and plot a political movement. Of course in the end that really is not so much thinking as indoctrination.It seems that I now concur that almost none of Humanity is ready for what is coming very fast; The Future. And the technologies, which will revolutionize the way we live. It seems that the MindMap strategy might just be what people need. Consider it, meanwhile I certainly hope this article propelled thought for you in 2007.

There are many online job sites which allow you to upload your CV into their database. Employers then search these databases looking for suitable candidates to match positions they are offering. Here are 7 great reasons why you should submit your CV online and therefore improve your chances of being matched with the perfect position.

1. Your CV is your link to potential employers and is your way of saying, “Look at me, look what I can do”. Huge amounts of employers search through CV banks looking for matches for positions they have to offer. By including your CV in as many databases as possible, you are increasing your chances of an employer finding you.

2. Some sites specialise in certain careers. By submitting your CV to a site in your field you are making sure that you get the best chance possible of finding a perfect match that meets your criteria.

3. Most CV banks keep you updated with information regarding your CV, such as how many times it has been looked at; what type of people are looking; and when. This way you know that at least employers are looking, even if you haven’t been offered an interview yet.

4. Most jobsite databases don’t charge you to use their services, the vast majority are some free. Submitting to these sites increases your chances of finding work without it even costing you a penny.

5. Editing your CV online is easy. All online databases give you the option of updating your CV if and when you need to. This is essential especially if yours is being looked over. Even if you haven’t any new information to add to it, just change the wording around a little and your CV will show up as been updated, which improves the chances of employers looking at it.

6. If an employer is interested in you then online database sites will send e-mail directly to your inbox with the details of the employer and the job on offer.

7. Employers and recruiters use CV databases to their advantage by typing in certain keywords when searching for candidates to fill positions. By including these keywords in your CV it is more likely to stand out and get chosen. In order for yours to stand out you could include such words as, analytical, adaptable, coordinated, evaluated, flexible, managed, marketed, motivated, organised, promoted, skilled and trained.

Executive search firmsare now being asked to recruit a new breed of information officers to assist corporations address Sarbanes-Oxley compliance requirements and to compete more effectively overall in the age of Sarbanes-Oxley. Passed in response to major corporate scandals, The Sarbanes-Oxley act also known as Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act of 2002 has redefined the role of the company CIO. Many of the most progressive corporations have successfully embraced the evolution of the Chief Information Officer function from being narrowly focused on the day-to-day maintenance and support of a company’s information systems organization to a much broader leadership and management role on the company’s senior management team. Executive search firm Venerable Partners says that these forward thinking corporations have empowered their CIOs to become vital business partners in designing and executing the business strategy for their respective organizations. Chief Executives who have supported this evolution have undoubtedly experienced greater operational efficiencies, improved resource utilization, and better returns on their technology investments.

According to Donald Law, Managing Director of executive search firm Venerable Partners, “as a byproduct of this evolution, Chief Information Officers have now become intimately involved in all of the critical business processes that drive their companies. From supply chain management to production systems, from customer fulfillment to billing systems, from human resource management systems to compliance tracking, a corporation’s information systems organization has become inextricably linked to all significant business processes within their company.”

It is critical for Chief Executives to appreciate the significance of this linkage between an entity’s information systems organization and the critical business processes and safeguards required for Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. According to executive search firm Venerable Partners, “because it is not practical for Chief Executives to understand the granular technical details of the technology solutions that support an organization’s business processes, the relationship between the CEO and his/her CIO has to be stronger than ever. As an executive search firm who partners with senior management, we have seen that CEOs are now coming to expect that their CIOs become the guarantors of the business processes implemented within their organizations.” However, in order to allow one’s CIO to become the guarantor of one’s organizational business processes, CEOs must recognize that they must now provide for a level of transparency that their CIOs may not have been privileged to in the past. Such open communication is critical to an organization’s ability to consistently satisfy the Sarbanes-Oxley requirements and mitigate unforeseen exposure to essential business processes.

As Chief Executives go about assessing the leadership strengths of their information officers and go about identifying senior information systems executives who present the capacities to truly become the guarantors of one’s business processes, executive search firm Venerable Partners recommends that CEOs (and their respective selection committees) work to identify information systems executives who present the following essential qualifications:

1. Exceptionally strong general business acumen along with an astute level of understanding of all critical business functions and their underlying processes.
2. Business process management skills, including an understanding of best practice process documentation procedures.
3. Demonstrated success serving as a key business partner across all major functional disciplines in delivering a comprehensive suite of information technology solutions designed to advance the needs of the business.
4. Prior exposure to Sarbanes-Oxley reporting and compliance requirements.
5. The interpersonal and leadership skills required to establish a trusted advisor relationship with the CEO.
6. Demonstrated experience as a senior leader of an information systems organization, including a thorough understanding of the enabling infrastructure, operations and applications solutions that underlie a world-class information systems organization.
7. Familiarity with the emerging information technologies that are impacting one’s particular industrial sector and driving the major architectural, econometric and customer-focused solutions.

Executive search firm Venerable Partners states that these are only general guidelines intended to provide a basis from which to begin an assessment of one’s leadership strengths within the office of the information officer. A company’s specific business challenges and external market forces will also dictate the ideal profile best suited to address an organization’s specific needs.

Donald Law of executive search firm Venerable Partners comments that “each client situation is unique” and that corporations should first engage one of the leading executive search firms to provide a comprehensive assessment of the leadership strengths and weakness within the office of the information officer prior to making any decisions regarding one’s personnel. By partnering with an executive search firm like Venerable Partners to provide this type of assessment, Law maintains that corporations will better mitigate compliance related risks and also help ensure that adequate succession planning initiatives are also in place within a corporation’s IT organization.

So you graduated with a bachelor of science degree and you don’t want to become a doctor, dentist or work in a lab. You also don’t intend to pursue a graduate degree in science either as scientific research is not really your calling. So you might be thinking about what type of careers and jobs are open for university or college graduates with science degrees.

I was in that same situation many years ago as I felt that I would prefer wearing a business suit rather than a lab coat for my working career. I wasn’t interested in Petri dishes, Bunsen burners, flasks or dissection tools anymore. I wanted to carry a snazzy briefcase and have business luncheons instead. So I was fortunate enough to stumble into a career field that I would stay in for fourteen very lucrative and rewarding years. This career was in pharmaceutical sales which turned out to be a perfect match of science and business.

There are many perks and benefits when working as a drug rep in the pharmaceutical industry. Salaries and bonuses could amount to six figures for high achievers and there is the use of a company car. Corporate expense accounts are also available for business entertaining. There are also the travel opportunities that are paid for by the company as many sales meetings as well as medical conventions are often located at nice places. Being a pharmaceutical sales representative also means that there is a lot of freedom and independence with the job as fixed working shifts are no longer the way for a drug rep. Even better is that for 95% of the time, there is no boss to look over your shoulder while on the job.

Being a drug rep also has some intangible rewards I didn’t expect when I first started. The field involves working with medical professionals to bring them useful products that will greatly benefit their patients. Drug reps with pharmaceutical sales forces can be considered as part of the overall health care team since they are playing an important role in helping patients.

So if you are a science graduate and want to do something in business rather than in a purely scientific field, consider pharmaceutical sales as a viable career option.

If these jobs aren’t reason enough to start your own business and work for yourself I don’t know what is…

“During my first year of school I was pretty desperate for cash, my buddy told me that there was a mink farm near his home that needed some help. I went down there and before I knew it I was working in a 200’ long metal shack with nearly 1000 mink in 105 degree heat scraping mink crap off of wire cages. [How much did you get paid?] Well, l started at $5 an hour and ended a $5 an hour two weeks later…my roommates made me leave all my clothes outside and run to the shower in my underwear before I could even talk to them. Yeah, that job was pretty lame, I can’t believe I actually did it.” Don R.

“I once helped clean out apartment buildings after tenants moved to prepare the rooms for the next tenant. Anyways, one time my supervisor dropped me off at a place and told me to haul the mattress outside, tear up the carpet and pad, and pile it all up outside of the building. He kind of laughed as he drove off and I quickly found out why. The guy that had lived there was an alcoholic that in his drunken state usually used either a corner of the apartment or his bed as a toilet. Between the throw-up soaked sheets, 100 pound urine soaked, mattress, and carpet that had dried and was stuck to the floor from this dude’s “messes” it took me 5 hours to clean it all up and was pretty much the worst thing I had ever done. It turned out the apartment was vacant because the guy had gotten onto the roof the night before and tried to jump to the next apartment building…thirty feet away.” Mike B.

“Um, worst job? That would have to be the time I used to wash out dumpsters using a pressure washer. Years of fermented grass clippings, diapers, and anything else you can imagine would fly up out of the dumpster and onto my arms which, no matter how hard I would wash never really stopped reeking. It paid well though…go figure.” Kris R.