As a recruiter you want to be where the most qualified, talented, and largest pool of applicants are. Human resources can leverage social media to tap in to potential recruits. This type of head hunting is called social recruiting. It's about engaging with users and using social media tools to source and recruit talent.

LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter have over 535 million combined users. That equals a lot of potential talent for your company. But how do you find the right person for the job you have available using social media? Here's how to get started.

How to Use Social Media as a Recruiting Tool: Understanding Each Social Network

By now you should be familiar with LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. But just in case your're not, here is a quick overview. 

"LinkedIn is an interconnected network of experienced professionals from around the world, representing 170 industries and 200 countries. You can find, be introduced to, and collaborate with qualified professionals that you need to work with to accomplish your goals," states the company's website. That is the corporate way of saying they are a giant jobs board and you can connect to other professionals. There are over 65 million professionals on LinkedIn.

Facebook is the largest of the social networking sites with over 400 million users. Facebook is a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study, and live around them. It is intended to connect friends, family, and business associates. The model has expanded to include connections to organizations, businesses, and interests -- not just individual people. 

Twitter is a microblogging social networking service. Messages, better known as tweets, are no more than 140 characters. According to their website, "Twitter is a simple tool that helps connect businesses more meaningfully with the right audience at the right time."

So now that you know what the major social media sites are, which one should you use and how do you use it?

Digg Deeper: The Business Owner's Social Media Toolkit

How to Use Social Media as a Recruiting Tool:  Using LinkedIn

The most obvious ways to use LinkedIn are to post jobs you have available and search for candidates. It costs $195 to post a job for 30 days. Or you can buy job credits and pay less per job posting if you buy more credits.  You can also sign up for LinkedIn Talent Advantage.  It is an exclusive suite of tools for recruiters. But if you don't have the budget to pay for job postings or join the Talent Advantage you can still tap in to the free resources LinkedIn offers.  

You should start by building connections to people you already know. This could include former co-workers, current clients, local entrepreneurs and even friends and family. Because you never know who someone else may be connected too that could make for a top-notch candidate. You should also join groups where you might connect with potential candidates. For example, if you are always looking for IT consultants you can find an affiliated group on LinkedIn. Once you join relevant groups find ways to begin discussions with people in the group. If you notice people who are active in the group, they always ask questions and answer others questions, those might be the people you hone in on for job opportunities.

There is also a free way to advertise that you are hiring on LinkedIn without posting a job. Use your network activity box (also known as a status box) to broadcast that you are hiring. "Looking for an IT consultant. If you know someone, maybe even you. Contact me." 

When you find someone who may be a good fit for your company you have to evaluate their LinkedIn profile. Does the person have a complete profile including a picture? Do they have recommendations from peers, managers and colleagues? Are they a member of groups relevant to their field? Do you have any 2nd or 3rd degree connections to the person to get a more personal referral? You can find out a lot about a person from their profile before contacting them for an interview.

As small business owners, you can easily leverage LinkedIn to find talent.

Digg Deeper: More about LinkedIn

How to Use Social Media as a Recruiting Tool:  Using Facebook

How many candidates do you have in your database? Whatever the number is it doesn't come close to how many potential candidates are on Facebook. Facebook provides easy and affordable ways to increase your applicant pool. First utilize theFacebook Directory to search for users, pages, groups and applications.  

You can post a job for free in the Facebook Marketplace. The ad requires basic information such as location, job category, subcategory, title, why you need to fill this position, description and if you want to post your photo with the job posting or another image. The limitation of a free job posting is that you can't target it to a specific group of people like you can with a Facebook Ad.

Facebook Pages are another free resource within Facebook. A Facebook Page is a public profile that enables you to share your business and products with Facebook users. If you don't have a Facebook Page you can search other Facebook  pages to find people both active and interested in your field or that would be interested in your available position. If your company has a Facebook page you may want to use it as a recruiting tool. Make sure the information about your company is relevant and up-to-date. You can also post job openings for your fans to see. These people are passionate about your company and can be just as passionate about working for your company.

Another option is to post a Facebook Ad if you aren't getting the results you want from searching. The advantage of the ad platform on Facebook over its rivals Google Adwords and Yahoo! Advertising is that Facebook has laser targeting ability. With a Facebook Ad you can choose the exact audience that you are looking to target. The system will ask a series of questions about the characteristics of the people you want to see your job posting ad. You will be asked about the group's age, sex and specific keywords related to the position. Facebook will then calculate how many users fit that criteria. You have the choice to pay per click (how many people clicked on your job ad), pay per impression (how many people potentially saw your ad) and set how much you are willing to pay. You can decide whether to run the job ad continuously or only during a certain time.

For example, if your company is in Minneapolis and you are not including relocation in the budget for this position you can target the job posting to only be shown to people that live in Minnesota or bordering states. If the position is an entry-level position you can target the job posting to a younger age demographic. It is normally a violation of EEOC to target for or against a specific gender but a Facebook Ad is a loophole to bypass that. Because if you know a woman would be better suited for your position, you can target your job posting to only be seen by women. The options are endless to how narrow a field you can define. Be careful to not make the criteria too specific or you may not get the applicants you want.

Digg Deeper: More about Facebook

How to Use Social Media as a Recruiting Tool:  Using Twitter

Twitter can be powerful for small companies or a recruiter who wants to get an edge over the competition. The easiest way to recruit is to tweet jobs you have available. "Looking for a Sales Rep in NYC, Very competitive salary, apply at (include a shortened url)."  

If your company has a Twitter account but not a lot of followers you can expand your network and build relationships with clients and job candidates on Twitter. Run a quick search on Twitter (search.twitter.com) for anybody discussing a specific keyword and you can get hundreds of contacts. You can search for people you know, by location, by industry or interest, by hashtag, by popularity, by time and more. 

To make your job posting tweets standout you can also use hash tags, #. Hash tags are used as a way to filter and find information on Twitter. All you have to do is include the hash tag with a keyword in your tweet and it becomes instantly searchable. Here are a few examples of hash tags you might consider using: #job, #jobpost, #employment, #recruiting, #hiring, #career, #staffing, #salesjob, #NAJ (that is Twitter lingo for 'Need A Job?')  You can use more than one hash tag in your tweet but remember you are limited to 140 characters so be strategic in which hash tag or tags you use.

You can engage with candidates and see what topics they tweet about. There is also the opportunity to market events you will be attending. "Stop by our career booth at the Sales Tech Expo."

There are companies like AdLogic that help businesses target to a particular Twitter audience. AdLogic lets clients create custom job feeds and corresponding specialized Twitter profiles for each area that they recruit for.

Your company Twitter account is also an opportunity to inform potential hires about your company. Your tweets say a lot about the company and what topics are important to your company.

When you find a potential candidate on Twitter evaluate their activity to see how often they tweet, if they have a healthy balance between followers and following, how big is their network and the quality of their tweets. Do they keep a balance between personal and professional tweets? Do they only post updates or do they respond to others and retweet others fully utilizing what Twitter is about?

Digg Deeper: More about Twitter

How to Use Social Media as a Recruiting Tool: Return on Investment

Social media recruiting helps an employer get to know a potential job candidate. Is this a highly skilled, well-rounded individual that fits with your team? As with any job opening, using social media recruiting requires time and effort but it's an investment in longer-term benefits for your company. Using LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter takes recruiting back to its grass roots of networking but for a digital age.

There's no worse feeling than when you're in an interview and the interviewer asks you a question to which you don't know the answer.

The best way to handle this dreaded debacle is to go into the interview prepared. Familiarize yourself with a few common difficult questions and arm yourself with answers prepared ahead of time.

Check out these tough interview questions and some suggested responses in order to avoid an interview disaster:

Tough question No. 1: "Tell me about yourself."

This is usually the opening question in an interview and it's the perfect moment for you to toot your own horn -- not to tell your life history. Your answers should be a quick rundown of your qualifications and experience. Talk about your education, work history, recent career experience and future goals.

Suggested answer: "I graduated from University X and since then, I have been working in public relations with an agency where I have generated millions of PR hits for my clients. While I've enjoyed working on the agency side, I'm looking to expand my horizons and start doing PR for corporate companies such as this one."

This is your chance to talk about your experience and your career goals, not to badmouth a former boss or give a laundry list of reasons for your exit. Instead, focus on what you learned in your previous position and how you are ready to use those skills in a new position.

Tough question No. 2: "Why did you leave your last job?"

Suggested answer: "The company just wasn't a good fit for my creativity, but I learned that organizations have distinct personalities just like people do. Now I know where I'll be a better fit."

Tough question No. 3: "Where do you see yourself in five years?"

Let the employer know that you're stable and you want to be with this company for the long haul. Keep your aspirations to take over the firm with which you are interviewing, own your own company, retire at 40 or be married with five children to yourself.

Suggested answer: "I want to secure a civil engineering position with a national firm that concentrates on retail development. Ideally, I would like to work for a young company, such as this one, so I can get in on the ground floor and take advantage of all the opportunities a growing firm has to offer."

Tough question No. 4: "What are your weaknesses?"

The key to answering this age-old question is not to respond literally. Your future employer most likely won't care if your weak spot is that you can't cook, nor do they want to hear the generic responses, like you're "too detail oriented" or "work too hard."

Respond to this query by identifying areas in your work where you can improve and figure out how they can be assets to a future employer. If you didn't have the opportunity to develop certain skills at your previous job, explain how eager you are to gain that skill in a new position.

Suggested answer: "In my last position, I wasn't able to develop my public-speaking skills. I'd really like to be able to work in a place that will help me get better at giving presentations and talking in front of others."

Tough question No. 5: "Why were you laid off?"

This question will become more common as the economy continues to slow down. It's a tough question, however, especially because many workers aren't told exactly why they were laid off. The best way to tackle this question is to answer as honestly as possible.

Suggested answer: "As I'm sure you're aware, the economy is tough right now and my company felt the effects of it. I was part of a large staff reduction and that's really all I know. I am confident, however, that it had nothing to do with my job performance, as exemplified by my accomplishments. For example..."

Tough question No. 6: "Tell me about the worst boss you ever had."

Never, ever talk badly about your past bosses. A potential boss will anticipate that you'll talk about him or her in the same manner somewhere down the line.

Suggested answer: "While none of my past bosses were awful, there are some who taught me more than others did. I've definitely learned what types of management styles I work with the best."

Tough question No. 7: "How would others describe you?"

You should always be asking for feedback from your colleagues and supervisors in order to gauge your performance; this way, you can honestly answer the question based on their comments. Keep track of the feedback to be able to give to an employer, if asked. Doing so will also help you identify strengths and weaknesses.

Suggested answer: "My former colleagues have said that I'm easy to do business with and that I always hit the ground running with new projects. I have more specific feedback with me, if you'd like to take a look at it."

Tough question No. 8: "What can you offer me that another person can't?"

This is when you talk about your record of getting things done. Go into specifics from your résumé and portfolio; show an employer your value and how you'd be an asset.

Suggested answer: "I'm the best person for the job. I know there are other candidates who could fill this position, but my passion for excellence sets me apart from the pack. I am committed to always producing the best results. For example..."

Tough question No. 9: "If you could choose any company to work for, where would you go?"

Never say that you would choose any company other than the one where you are interviewing. Talk about the job and the company for which you are being interviewed.

Suggested answer: "I wouldn't have applied for this position if I didn't sincerely want to work with your organization." Continue with specific examples of why you respect the company with which you are interviewing and why you'll be a good fit.

Tough question No. 10: "Would you be willing to take a salary cut?"

Salary is a delicate topic. In today's tough economy though, how much a company can afford to pay you might be the deal breaker in whether or not you are offered a position.

Looking for Work? Spread Around Your Efforts

The most important thing that any job seeker can do to improve their chances of landing a job is using multiple resources in their job hunting efforts. This means posting your resume online, as Mahendra described in Top 5 Free Resume Hosting Websites, or using social networks as Charnita described in 8 Sites For Beating The Job Hunting Blues. However, the core of your efforts should be focused on websites that bring all of the world’s jobs to your doorstep.

You’ve been with your company for a little while now. You’re great at your job but you’re thinking you could use a little more challenge. Or change. Or both. You’ve invested some time with this company and you like the culture, the business, and the benefit plan. But there’s still something missing. You don’t want to leave and start again at a new company, so what are your options?

You can settle and just keep doing the same job, hoping for opportunities to pop up to stimulate you or your career, or you can be proactive, and look at other departments and try working with them. This gets you the benefit of starting a new job with the security of staying within a company that you already love. No, this isn’t the same as dating your ex-wife’s sister just because you love the family – that’s a different article altogether. This is more like finding the right fit for you and your development. Maybe a better (or worse) analogy is thinking that any piece of the jigsaw can be made to fit – but it might not look quite right, and it’s usually not that good for the puzzle, especially the puzzle piece. If you know you aren’t fitting in quite right, it’s your responsibility to find where you belong.

So what can you do to find the right fit?

Take a look at your company. There are many different departments with different goals and daily responsibilities. If you were to switch to one of these teams, what part of the job would you like the best? Make a list of the pros and cons of each position, and see if one piques your curiosity more than the others. Talk to the people in that department. Find out what they like about their role, their boss, their responsibilities. Ask them what they love about it and what they think the most frustrating aspects of it are.

If you are interested in this new role don’t wait for an official posting to go up. Find out who will be making the hiring decision and book time to talk to them. Learn when they are going to be hiring and what they want to see in future team members. Don’t let the first time they meet you be the courtesy interview that is extended to internal applicants. If you show interest in them before they have a need it won’t look like you are brown nosing insincere. Talk to the hiring manager and learn about the skills and qualifications required for this role, and then go and get them. You might need to take a few night classes or go back and get your degree. You will need to decide if it’s worth it.

Now that you have identified the team you want to be on, demonstrate that you are interested by trying to be a part of the team. Volunteer to job–shadow members of the team. Notice I said volunteer. You don’t want to look like you are trying to get out of your current job; you want to look like you are generally interested in this new department. Assisting the team with their existing projects can demonstrate that you are a team player, it can showcase how your current skills are a good fit for this team, and it can give you an opportunity to find out if you really like working on this team. The grass usually looks greener, but sometimes it’s just a different shade of the same grass.

Now that you’ve shown that you are interested in working on the new team, you need to show them that you are outstanding in your current role. If you shirk your current responsibilities in favor of doing the work on the new team, you are showing the decision makers that you only do well on jobs you like doing. This isn’t a great plan. Show them that you are able to do your current job to an outstanding level, and they will see the benefit of having you on their team.

Ok, you’re on the radar. They know who you are, they know you’re interested in the position, and now they are hiring. You might not get the job. If you are lacking the official skills on your resume the role might go to an outside candidate that does have them, or to someone with more experience. If you do get it – fantastic! If you don’t, go and talk to the hiring manager to discuss what you need to do for next time. Show them that you are in it for the long haul, and you know that there will be future positions on this team. Listen to what they tell you and then take action on it. Demonstrating that you are able to accept criticism and do something with it to improve yourself speaks volumes to your future new boss. Who doesn’t want an employee that listens to your suggestions and then finds a way to git ‘r done?

There’s a possibility that you will need to take a step down, either in position or in pay grade – or both, in order to secure your new position. This is often the case in situations where your technical skill has not been demonstrated enough for the new position, but they are willing to take a chance on you. If you are able to, take this opportunity. If you’ve shown this much interest and dedication to get this role you likely won’t stay at the junior level for long. Only you can decide if this is an acceptable option for you.

Yay! You are the successful candidate. You’ve signed the offer letter, and you are on your way to becoming the superstar on the new team. Don’t forget your old team. You never know when you might need their help or support, so it’s best not to burn any bridges. Help train your replacement, speak highly of your old boss and team, and remember to touch base every once in a while. There’s a good chance that you aren’t the only one that wanted to move within the company, so watch for those that could use your advice and assistance.

The nice thing about this structure is there really isn’t a down side. Best case, you get to work on a new team in a new role, in a company that you enjoy being a part of. Worst case, you learn more about the other departments in your company and who the decision makers are within them. In both cases, this is valuable info that you can use as you advance within the company

Thanks to Dr. John Sullivan for sharing the 13 Trends In Corporate Recruiting for 2009 which inspires me to write about the latest trends in recruitment which small and medium size companies can easily adopt and can reduce their cost several folds. Major recruitment trends that are in voyage are as follows.

1- Poaching/Raiding

Buying talent” (rather than developing it) is the latest mantra being followed by the organisations today. Poaching means employing a competent and experienced person already working with another reputed company in the same or different industry; the organisation might be a competitor in the industry. A company can attract talent from another firm by offering attractive pay packages and other terms and conditions, better than the current employer of the candidate. But it is seen as an unethical practice and not openly talked about. Indian software and the retail sector are the sectors facing the most severe brunt of poaching today. It has become a challenge for human resource managers to face and tackle poaching, as it weakens the competitive strength of the firm.

2-E-Recruitment 

Many big organizations use Internet as a source of recruitment. E- recruitment is the use of technology to assist the recruitment process. They advertise job vacancies through worldwide web. The job seekers send their applications or curriculum vitae i.e. CV through e mail using the Internet. Alternatively job seekers place their CV’s in worldwide web, which can be drawn by prospective employees depending upon their requirements. Advantages of recruitment are Low cost, No intermediaries, Reduction in time for recruitment
Recruitment of right type of people and Efficiency of recruitment process.

3-Headhunting

Recruiters rely on Headhunting through which they can target even passive candidates and try convincing them. This is usually done for senior levels as they prefer to be invisible in job boards but looking for a suitable opportunities.

4-Employee branding

Organizations are focusing on their employee branding to create more visibility in the market and to attract key talent. This includes publicity through media, internet, arranging various events and actively taking social responsibilities.

5-Referral programs

Practicing Employee referrals is always a win-win situation. Firstly, it gives the employee to suggest right talent in the form for friends. Secondly, This reduces the cost to the company as they avoid external vendors and give more importance to the internal references from the employees. Such employees are rewarded financially and that helps in retaining the existing talent and at the same time bringing the best fit with minimum cost. Also companies are showing interest in bring back the ex-employees.

6-Employee blogs for recruiting

It is easy to find a person with right skills as there is enough talent in the market. But choosing the best fit is a challenge as there is high competition. Along with the skills, person needs to be smart, should have good ownership skills and should stand out in the crowd. Such people are enthusiastic and participate in most of the activities online and offline. Companies look for their such visibility apart from the regular activities. Such identity through blogs or online visibility will definitely attracts the hiring manager.

7-Mobile-phone recruiting

It’s another latest trend which helps to reach the crowd quickly. There are lots of new features available for mobile communication such as text messaging, video message etc.

8-Social Gathering

Participation in different external conferences and competitions to identify the similar talent available in the market. Sharing the business cards for future references.

Although using social networks as a recruiting source has been a well-discussed concept for a while, few firms have found productive ways to truly leverage social media sites. However, as new approaches are developed that more accurately align with the paradigm of social media audiences, recruiting on social networks will become more mainstream. Focus areas include encouraging your employees to be more visible online and using networks to identify innovators. Key networking sites include Facebook (global), MySpace (global), Friendster (global), LinkedIn (global), Twitter (U.S.), Multiply (Asia), Mixi (Japan), Cyworld (Korea), and Xiaonei (China). Firms to watch: E&Y, Zappos, CIA, Yum Brands, Google, and Facebook.

While it may be hard for some to fathom, 1:1 and 1:many video has become a very popular communication medium, surpassing all other forms of Internet traffic. Second only to employee referrals, the most impactful tool for effectively demonstrating the excitement and passion at a firm is online video. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then moving pictures demonstrating what it’s like to work at your firm would have to be “priceless.” Focus areas include posting on video-sharing sites such as YouTube (global), Youku.com (China), and sharing employee-generated “unscripted” videos on your corporate site. Firms to watch: Deloitte, Microsoft, and Google.

As mobile phones with amazing features spread throughout the population, recruiting managers are beginning to realize that they can be a powerful recruiting media. Key focus areas include text messaging, mobile video, and mobile-accessible corporate careers sites. Firms to watch: Google and nearly any firm in Asia!
Revitalizing corporate jobs page. Recruiting managers are beginning to understand that pitifully dull and dated websites drive away innovators. Focus areas include providing personalized information to the visitor, Flash video integration, blogs, podcasts, and virtual Q&As. Firms to watch: Microsoft, Google, and Deloitte.
Using a CRM model for hiring. I’ve been touting the values of the CRM (customer relationship management) model for years. More firms are beginning to understand the value of improving the experience at each “touch point” with the candidate. Key focus areas include relationship recruiting, automated applicant profiling, automated event calendaring, and robust lifecycle metrics. Firms to watch: U.S. Army, GlaxoSmithKline, and E&Y.

14-Hiring innovators

Rapid product copying and the high visibility of innovative firms like Apple and Google are forcing recruiting managers to modify recruiting processes in order to successfully recruit innovators and game changers. Key focus areas include relationship recruiting, pre-need hiring, and tolerant/inclusive screening and interviewing processes. Firms to watch: IBM and Google.

15-Recruiting globally

Recruiting managers are beginning to learn how to differentiate multi-national recruiting from true global recruiting. Key focus areas include global sourcing, globalized websites, and globalized employer referral programs. Firms to watch: Infosys and IBM.

Recruitment is the first function of human resource management cycle, which must take seriously as the success and failure of your decision regarding the human resources is very much based on this particular function. Few years back, companies invest thousands of dollars in order to recruitment and selection but now thanks to the modern technology which is helping to save a huge amount of money and time as well. Traditionally personnel management professional think that internal hiring or reference based hiring is the only solution to hire the individual at a lowest possible cost, but now you can go beyond that and without investing in advertisement you can get the required individual of your own choice. 

Job portals are the most easiest way in order to get in touch with your target audience, Just make an account on some of job portal, the account is usually free as in case of Monster, indeed, yahoo hot jobs. Advertisement as basics are free of cost but if you want to advertise the job than a nominal fee is associated with it. These Job sites are those which are working globally beside this you can go regionally like Rozee, Ebay or Canadian job force. you can go through search engine and can find the regional job sites. as compared to the global job sites, regional job sites are much cheaper if you want to advertise the job and of course your reach to the target market will be more. To know more about job sites read my post about the Job Portals. 

Social Networking like Facebook , LinkedIn are doing great jobs, Human Resource Professional can post their jobs in their status messages and can reach up to their target audience. one of the trend which is arising, about all the companies have their appearance on their Facebook fan page, recruitment manager can post the job on the fan groups and you will easily get the loyal individuals for your company. I am giving here just clue you can  think out of the box and can share your experiences with me. 

Yesterday I was reading a job description of an online sale agent in which one of the skill required was that you have at least 250 followers on the tweeter this is the way things are changing now a days. If you have a large number of followers you can use it as your strength and with the help of tweets you can advertise the job and the result will be very much favorable on your side. 

There are also some professional sites which develops linkage between industry and the job seekers. I have gone through the search, these professional networks are not much inn but in the future they will definitely. There are few who have a large number of members like Salam Business Club. 

One of the easiest way is to write a job description and create a buzz of it on yahoo or Google and you would get good results. But it really works when your job is very common and the skills are not much unique. This thing is not very much popular but in the future it will definitely work. 

If you are going for an interview as a prospective employee then you should do some research.  Read the job description and requirements carefully.  Browse the web site to see how the organization presents itself.  Search for news items and comments about the company on news sites and blogs.

For the interview itself you should dress smartly and appropriately.  It is important to have some questions prepared and here are a few that could really help:

1.  What exactly would my day-to-day responsibilities be? It is essential that you clearly understand your role and the tasks that you would be expected to undertake.  It is easy to make assumptions and get the wrong impression of what the work would be so it is vital for both sides that there is clarity in what is expected of you.  If the interviewer cannot give a clear answer then this is a worrying sign, so politely follow up with more questions.  Some people even ask to see exactly where they will sit.

2.  What are the opportunities for training and career advancement? This question serves two purposes.  It helps you to understand where the job might lead and what skills you might acquire.  It also signals that you are ambitious and thinking ahead.

3.  What is the biggest challenge facing the organization today? This sort of question takes the interview away from the detail and towards strategic issues.  It allows to you see and discuss the bigger picture.  It proves that you are interested in more than just the 9 to 5 aspects of the job.  It can lead to interesting discussions that can show you in a good light – especially if you have done some intelligent preparation.  If appropriate you can follow up this question with some questions about the objectives of the department and the manager who is interviewing you.

4.  When did you join? After the interviewer has asked a number of questions about you it can make a good change to ask a gentle question about them.  People often like talking about themselves and if you can get them talking about their progress in the company you can learn useful and interesting things.

5.  What are the criteria that you are looking for in the successful candidate for this position? The job advertisement may have listed what was wanted in a candidate but it is very useful to hear the criteria directly from the interviewer.  The more that you can discover about what they want and how they will make the decision the better placed you are to influence that decision.

6.  How do you feel that I measure up to your requirements for this position? This follows on naturally from the previous questions.  It may seem a little pushy but it is a perfectly fair thing to ask.  In sales parlance this is a ‘trial close’.  If they say that you are a good fit then you can ask whether there is any reason you might not be offered the job.  If they say that you are lacking in some key skill or attribute then you can move into objection handling mode and point out some relevant experience or a countervailing strength.

7.  Would you like to hear what I could do to really help your department? If you want the job then this is a great question to ask at the end of the interview.  Most interviewers will reply, ‘Yes.’  Drawing on what you have learnt in the conversation, you can give a short sales pitch on why you fit the criteria and why your strengths and ideas will siginficantly assist the boss to meet their objectives.  Make it short, direct and clear with the emphasis on the benefits for them of having you in the team.  At the end ask something like, ‘how does that sound?’

Many candidates take a passive role at the interview.  They competently answer the questions that are put to them but they never take the initiative by asking intelligent questions that steer the interview in a helpful direction.  If you are a proactive candidate who asks the sorts of questions given above then you will be seen as more dynamic and you will significantly increase your chances of being offered the job.

It is one of the worst phenomenon in local organization, that manager usually unable to create a fit between the job description and the job specification, here it comes two scenarios under it when manager made that type of particular mistake and in some cases actually unable to realize that they are making this error and how hard this will effect your organization.These two scenarios are 

Now the first situation is not creating so much trouble as you don't have the required personnels so some how by giving training to the individual and with lesser cost you are able to get your job done. It is not creating a big problem for your organization. 

But in second case which I have realized after experiencing it from a number of organization, I really feel that hiring of an individual with over skilled is creating the liability for your organization. HR manager made this mistake as in current situation where the economy is in recession people are loosing their jobs in such cases they are willing to work for such a post which are below their KSA's (knowledge, skills and abilities) resultantly their motivation level also get decreased as I have already discussed in my previous post (set significant but achievable goals). beside this as job description is not matched with the job specification so people with over skilled keep looking for the other jobs of their caliber in the market and  as they found the job having a great fit they go for quiting the job. In this situation not only the employer has to pay more to the employee for having a number of skills but when they quit the employer also have to bear the turn over cost. So in such a case from the very beginning HR manager must made some rational decision regarding the hiring so that it may able to save a lot of money for the organization.