You are currently browsing the monthly archive for February, 2008.
We are pleased to announce the launch of our new logo that is being incorporated into the .com version of our site. This should be launched shortly and will include a exciting new CMS that has some pretty nifty SEO features.
Any thoughts on the new logo are more than welcome…….
I could never work from home, too many temptations – a nice warm bed, a fridge full of beer and a nice garden when the sun is shining. Notice that I didn’t include daytime television in this list?
However, for those that have the self discipline and motivation to work from home – it is a great opportunity – it helps you address the work life balance, cuts commuting costs to zero and maybe, just maybe means that you work more too…
With no traffic jams, snow drifts, leaves on rail tracks and limited office gossip – it is a win:win situation for employers and employees that can make it work.
To this end, for those of you wanting to do SEO by the sea, in your bed, in your pyjamas or even whilst wearing your wife’s (or husbands) clothes , here are two great opportunities for you to consider:
SEO Assistant – UK – Work from home
SEO Sales Executive/Manager – UK – Work from home
Good luck!
Good SEO Executive and PPC Consultants are in high demand – however, so are client expectations and as such it is vital that you prepare effectively for your interview. Employers may be crying out for your skills but don’t think for a second that they will recruit you just because they are desperate – with high levels of client accountability they still need and want to recruit the best.
Having said that, whether your skills are agency side or client side, they are pressing the right buttons to get you to interview stage – you can safely assume that the company are interested in what you have to offer, they have read your CV and they have liked what they have seen. You will also have lost much of the competition, as less than half of submitted applicants reach this stage.
Having established that you have the fundamental qualifications for the job, you have to build upon this and impress the interviewers with your personality. Technical skills aside, the purpose of an interview is for the employer to meet you in person and evaluate whether your personality will fit into their company. This article focuses on the non-SEO side of the interview - don’t be put off by this though; we have seen many jobseekers with great skills not be offered a job because employers felt they wouldn’t gel with the team, were hard to manage, were not 100% professional, were not presentable, were late, unenthusiastic, confrontational, evasive, too nervous, arrogant and lots more – in other words, there are plenty of reasons other than your SEO or PPC skills that may stop you getting that job offer.
First impressions
Research by psychologists has shown that people decide what they think of you within four minutes of a first meeting, therefore is very important to make a good impression right from the start.
Get all of your preparation out of the way well in advance, and allow plenty of time to get to the interview so that you arrive in a cool calm state. Arrive ten minutes early and use the bathroom facilities to smarten your appearance. You will not be so nervous if you are well prepared and look your best.
Confidence is the magic word, if you are confident then you will be relaxed and able to talk lucidly about yourself, you will be able to look the interviewer in the eyes, you will not fidget – you will have the potential to clinch the job.
If you are not feeling very self-assured just think, you wouldn’t have reached the interview stage if you didn’t possess the attributes that the company desires. Looking your best and being well prepared should help, so that when you meet the interviewer you will be able to greet them openly with a smile, look them in the eyes and shake their hand.
Don’t let confidence come across as arrogance. Excess confidence can come across this way and it’s not an attractive trait for the employer as it implies that you are not a good team player.
Multiple personalities
The subject of this article is “effective presentation”. However an employer will be looking for different personality traits depending on the type of job to which you are applying. For example, sales personnel have to be very outgoing and sociable, and these characteristics are not so necessary for a software engineer. If your natural personality is not really suitable for the job to which you are applying then you should seriously reconsider the direction of your career because otherwise you may not be happy in the long term.
Attractive features that are desirable to all employers include:
Confidence
This can be expressed in so many ways. Look the interviewer in the eyes, shake their hand firmly. Be chatty and lucid, sit with good straight posture with your hands on your lap, be precise in your answers do not ‘Um and ah’. Confidence comes with experience, so tell the interviewer about difficult situations that you negotiated in your previous jobs, perhaps even mention your world travels or a time you held a position of power within an organisation.
Approachability
To express approachability be friendly and open, smile and pleasantly greet everyone you are introduced to. Perhaps you trained other personnel in a previous job, or were a counsellor at college; recount an occasion when professionally someone came to you with their problem.
Sense of humour
Do not set about cracking jokes, but be responsive if the interviewer makes a humorous comment (even if it is not very funny). If you can subtly incorporate humour which is not at the expense of anyone else then do so, but bear in mind that this is a business interview and you should be professional.
Responsibility/trustworthiness
These qualities cannot be really seen in a person, but you can recount the times in your previous jobs that you have held positions of responsibility. For example any job in which you had personnel beneath you, or if you were a scout/Guide leader.
Initiative/leadership
These qualities are linked to confidence, but in addition show the employer examples of times you have used these skills and have prospered as a result. For example, you worked on a software solution to a work problem in your own time and it turned out to increase the efficiency of the task by 60%.
Body language
A first impression can be greatly influenced by a person’s body language. You are in trouble if all the right things are coming from your mouth, but your body is doing all the wrong things. Chat to the interviewer when they first meet you and take you to their office. After the interview confirm when you can expect to hear a decision from them, then move the conversation on to another matter. There is no definitive formula for interview success,just be relaxed and friendly, the easiest way to get your personality across is to be yourself.
Summary
We’ll cover the SEO/PPC aspects of the interview in a later post but remember that combining the above with demonstrable evident of your ability to effectively manage PPC campaigns or to optimise competivie keywords effectively gives you the best possible chance of securing that job offer.
Remember – it is the best prepared candidate that gets the job – not necessarily the best candidate that gets the job. In other words, you could be a perfect match, but if you cannot convey this fact to the interviewer during the interview then they will never know!
Want to work in Manchester?
The City is a buzzing place, with lots to see and do – clicking here will give you some good information about the City.
Of course, to get that vital SEO Interview you will need a job to apply to; we have several on our site but here are two of the most recent:
Job Title: Junior SEO Consultant
The Junior SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) role based in Manchester and the role includes: · Tracking, maintaining, analysing web sites · Monitoring overall SEO – keyword ranking, indexed pages and back links · Implementing On-page and Off page strategies · You will communicate progress to clients and provide answers to SEO questions. · You will also be involved in researching new initiatives to improve SEO practices. · Ongoing Development of Internal Documentation Knowledge of Internet and web development technologies: HTML, XHTML, CSS and PHP would also be desirable for this Junior SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) role based in Manchester Naturally you will have knowledge of the Search Engine Marketing industry, as well as passion and drive to excel in this fast paced environment.
We are looking recruit a talented technical SEO Consultant to undertake and deliver all technical aspects of a search marketing campaign.
Good luck with your search!
Here are some more great vacancies for you to get your teeth into:
Web Analytics Consultant, £18 -£20k, Central London
SEO Specialist / Search Engine Optimisation Executive, Cheshire, £18k-£24k plus bens
Search (SEO) and Web Traffic Campaign Manager, Lancaster area, £20k – £25k
Don’t forget to check out our main site we have loads of interesting jobs, articles and RSS feeds to help you with your job search.
Good luck!
Competency Based Interviews/Questions are also known as skills-based, behavioral, or structured interviews and work on the principle that:
PAST PERFORMANCE IS THE BEST PREDICTOR OF FUTURE PERFORMANCE.
To this end, the interviewer will therefore be seeking examples of past behavior that provide him/her with concrete evidence that you have the necessary competencies to succeed in the job. In essence, this is all about giving examples of situations that you have been in, problems you have encountered and how you overcome them.
To get the best out of these interviews it is vital that you prepare. Don’t think for a second that you can walk into this type of interview without any sort of preparation and “wing it”. It is vitally important that you can eloquently and confidently cover all of the aspects given in the following advice. If not, you’ll spend more time umming and erring and not giving the interview the facts they need to score you highly.
What happens in a situational interview?
The interviewer will ask you a series of questions along the lines of:
Describe a situation when you ……
Give an example of a time when you …..
When you have answered these, the interviewer may prompt you for further information. When you have exhausted one topic, the interviewer will move on to the next leaving little opportunity for discussion. At the end of the interview, there may be an opportunity for you to ask your own questions. This format may seem rigid, unnatural and unfriendly to many interviewees but, as well as providing evidence of competencies relevant to the job, it is also seen as a fair and equitable method of selection since all candidates are asked exactly the same questions.
What is the best way to prepare for a situational interview?
Read the employer’s brochure and/or job description, and note the skills and competencies they require. Note down any examples you can think of when you have put these competencies into practice. These examples could come from vacation or part-time work; university clubs and societies; voluntary work; study at school or university; holidays and travel or personal and family experiences. Compose a paragraph or so for each situation, outlining what happened, how you approached it and what the outcome was.
The “STAR” format should help you to structure these outlines:
Situation:
Task:
Action:
Result:
What was the situation in which you found yourself?
What was the specific task which you had to achieve?
What action did you take?
What was the outcome of your action?
The focus should be on you even if the situation involved a group, interviewers will want to know what was your specific role in achieving the desired result. Once you have done this, select the examples which you feel are the best illustrations of the required competence. These may be the ones that you choose to use on the application form, or else will be the first examples that you give in answer to the interview questions. Don’t forget the other examples, though interviewers may sometimes probe for as many examples as possible.
EXAMPLE: Describe how your personal planning and organisation resulted in the successful achievement of a personal or group task.
ANSWER:
Situation: Whilst employed at SEO Blog Ltd last summer
Task: I was given the task of rationalising the stock control system
Action: I would look at factors such as when the stock was last ordered, what it was used for and how often it was used. I worked out a method of streamlining the paperwork involved in this process and redesigned the relevant forms, which I then submitted to my manager.
Result My ideas were accepted and implemented and a 15% reduction in stock levels was achieved
Try to give quantifiable results if possible. “during my time as chairman, membership rose by 20%, we raised £200 for charity, my marks improved from 55% to 65%
You can’t always do this, but it gives a much better impression of your achievement. If the result was negative, then say what you learned from the experience and what you would do differently next time.
The examples you give can be from work, study or personal life – but try to give a variety. Don’t go into too much background detail – keep to the point Think of the most relevant examples, rather than the most “impressive”. If you are asked to describe a time when you had to give a presentation in front of the public, a seminar paper which involved research and planning will carry more weight than “presenting a bouquet to the Queen when I was four years old”
For SEO/PPC competency based interviews the idea is identical, it just the questions that are different – again getting the best of these interviews is all about preparation.
Good luck!
Want to work in London, UK for one of the fastest growing multi-channel retail companies in its sector? They have a rapidly expanding chain of stores (11 new openings in the last 12 months), mail order catalogue and an extremely successful website.
To help drive forward their success, new web software is being introduced to maximize revenue from online sales. Pivotal within the marketing department, you will be responsible for achieving on-line targets and conversions with PPC and SEO campaigns, affiliate marketing and 3rd party partnerships. You will also ensure that the company website is optimised to achieve a strong position in natural rankings.
This is a great opportunity, click to link below to find out who they are…. They’re a great retailer with super products aimed at a very competitive market.
Do well here and you’ll have a great chunk of experience to put on your CV – we all know that proving your ability to optimise for ultra-competitive keywords is the holy grail of SEO recruitment – have you got what it takes….?
We need your help……
We’re looking for a new web hosting Company ideally based in the UK but we’ll also consider a USA based supplier. They need to provide good reliable and secure web hosting with Debian Linux O/S and PHP5
Any good or bad Companies that we should know about? Please let us know!
A brand new vacancy, hot of the press today……
We are looking for an SEO Search Specialist to join our team of net savvy individuals and play an integral part in the delivery of SEO campaigns for our international client list. Ideally you will be an enthusiastic and ambitious person who has worked on enterprise level search engine marketing or optimization and have a thorough understanding of the search engine optimisation process and current search engine marketing trends.
You will be a confident and experienced communicator and be able to deal with clients at all levels. Presentation skills and experience would be useful. You may also have experience with programming or other online marketing techniques.
Hopefully educated to degree level, we’d expect you to have demonstrable experience with HTML and be familiar with one or more of the following: PHP, JSP, ASP, CSS or JavaScript. In return, we’ll offer you a competitive salary plus benefits.
You will be surrounded by passionate search marketers and will be invited to attend industry conferences and trade shows. If you’re looking to make a name for yourself in this cutting edge industry, this is the role for you.
